A little-used name for the part of Finsbury Park that lies between Blackstock Road and Green Lanes, in the borough’s
extreme north-western corner. Brownswood was formerly the local manor, dating back to the thirteenth century. An early version
of the name indicates that the landlord may have been called Brand. In 1852 the New River Company’s filter beds were
constructed on the west side of Green Lanes and 150 acres of surrounding land began to be built up soon afterwards. Within
two decades there were over a thousand homes on the Brownswood Park estate. Blackstock Road later became a part of the Finsbury
Park shopping district. During the 1990s the filter beds were filled in and more housing built.

The erection of barriers to convert streets into cul-de-sacs results from efforts to prevent the area’s use as a red
light district. The north-eastern end of Seven Sisters Road has the only ‘hotel zone’ in the London Borough of
Hackney. Brownswood ward has a high proportion of young, single, university-educated residents.

Some of the filter beds' pipework has been retained as a centrepiece for the new housing development